Inspiring the next generation

12 March 20142014-03-12T01:00:00+01:00

The Bournemouth & Christchurch Rotary Club Technology Tournament took place on 6 March with nearly 20 schools taking part.

We sponsored the event which included providing judges for the three categories and Charmaine Bradford, Phill Garrett and Naz Chughtai were all impressed with the innovation and creativity of the students as they developed their designs.

Students, in teams of four, were asked to build a device to lift a tennis ball out of a box from 1.5 meters away. The task increased in difficulty depending on the age group and it was up to the panel of judges to award points for planning, design, development, realisation, portfolio and the final test. The event highlighted the importance of testing, meeting requirements and performing under pressure to tight timescales - all important challenges faced by real life engineering projects. So as well as being a fun event, the students went away with some valuable experiences to remember.

This was the first such event that Phill had been involved in. He said: “I’d encourage more engineers to volunteer their time and get involved with these types of activities to help inspire future generations into a career in engineering.”

Vivian Dunn from the Rotary Club said: “A huge thank you for everything you did to make the Rotary Technology Tournament such a success."